So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I sold my Sony S270u and Z5u.

I am a Still Photographer who shoots videos on occasions.

Most often than not, I use manual focus using one push AF. Also I set my own Iris and gain settings. I am not very familiar with picture profiles, other than what I read in this forum.

I mostly shoot company’s press conferences and staff meetings etc.

This is what I bought:

PMW200
One SxS 32 GB Card
Two SxD SDHC Adapters.
Two Sandisk Extreme 64GB Cards
One BPU60 Battery

Need advice.

Sara.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I have no idea what advise you are looking for, but I have two.

1) The obvious one, start filming and enjoy your camera.

2) have a look at Alister Chapman's website http://www.xdcam-user.com/
There is an enormous amount of (technical) information about profiles, camerasettings, techniques etc. Not speciffically for the PMW200, but certainly a lot of it is useful for you.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

If you work commercially I would find out the prevailing rates in your area and stick to them. Low balling usually gets you problematic clients and tanks the entire market.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Sara,
Read the manual cover to cover and try the various settings while reading. Yes it will be boring but since it is a new camera to you and you're not familiar with all the buttons and controls if you spend a bit of time wwith the camera now, when you use it for a paying job you won't be in a panic if something happens and you need to go away from the settings you have. Like any camera, the better you know it the less you have to think about the camera and the more you can concentrate on the job at hand. Since you're not spending money on tape stock and you can clean and use the card over and over again, I would shoot anything and everything that gets in the way of the lens.
Congrats on the new toy and have fun with it.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

The advice I am looking for I guess, is how to obtain quality footage from this camera. I am a salaried employee by my company.

TIA

Sara

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Practice makes perfect, you can read as much as you want about a camera but there is only one way to find out and that's to shoot with it and look at the result. If you then encounter a problem you can narrow your questions here down to that particular problem, only then you can get a helpfull answer.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Do what you were doing with your Sony S270u and Z5u. Results will automatically be better i guess? :)

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Buy Doug Jensen's book / video when it comes out.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Stick to your SxS card and stick to 50Mbps UDF mode.

Unfortunately, the SDHC adapter and SDHC cards do not support the highest quality recording mode on this camera. My advice is to exchange them for XQD cards and a XQD adapter.

Also, you should be aware that there now exists a BP-U90 battery which would be very helpful for your case of long-form recordings.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

So here is my shopping list:

1. Doug's Book about PMW-200
2. BPU-90
3. XQD Cards with SXS adapter.

Questions:

Currently I am using Sennheiser EW 100 ENG G3. I need a decent, not too expensive shotgun microphone.
Sony ECM-674 and Rode NG2 (Both under $300 USD) fit my budget. Are these ok?

Sara

PS: Jack: The reason I want to keep SxS to SDHC adapter is becasue I own bunch of high speed cards for My Canon 1DX.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

You can only use SDHC cards in 35Mbps mode. This is 4:2:0 color and is inferior to the 50Mbps this camera is capable of. You must set your File Format to "FAT" in order to use them. The 200 defaults to "UDF", so you'll encounter an error if you use the SDHC adapter without changing a setting.

These SDHC adapters are also USB based. You will not notice a transfer speed increase because it's an "ExpressCard." The max transfer rate is no faster than USB 2.0 (not 3.0) Some adapters are slower than USB readers in some instances.

FYI, Cinegammas are called Hypergammas on the 200. This is a good Picture Profile to start off with: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...tml#post814941 (Only thing that needs to be figured out is an equivalent to the "High Sat" matrix preset on the 200)

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I think you mean a Rode NTG-2. It's a very good microphone and works well on-camera for ambient sound and really close head shots and probably on a boom, too. ( I've not used it on a pole before.) If you could find a used NTG-3, it's a big step up in sound quality. I started out with an NTG-2 and was quite happy with it till I heard the NTG-3. Still have it, though I don't use it anymore.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Bob, thanks for the plug. The training DVD is in production and should be released in late November. If there is a book it won't be until sometime 2013.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

For most people that would be good advice, but Sara says she shoots staff meetings and press conferences. I'm sure that the 35Mbps HQ mode in FAT is going to be plenty good enough for that and she'll have much smaller files sizes, and get significantly more recording time on her cards. Plus she can use the cards she already owns. That's my advice anyway.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I am planning to go to Central Park, weather permitting to test this baby out.

Meanwhile its sitting in my living room.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I have a PMW-200 picture profile here: XDCAM-USER.COM • Login

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Thanks Alister. I will try this tomorrow. Fhew! I have no idea what those settings means....yet.

One quick question folks:

There are two cold shoes on the camera. The one on the back was not included in the box.

Is there a part number for this? I couldn't find it on B&H website.

TIA

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Sony posted PMW200 vs EX1R Low light comparison via Twitter.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/10904830...ts/CFZwbEwXtsQ

Sony PMW-200 on Vimeo

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I'm suspicious about whether picture profiles had any role in this. A true objective test is to turn PP off on both cameras.

I trust Alister Chapman's comparison better.

http://www.xdcam-user.com/wp-content...Comparison.jpg

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Why a comparison in full auto mode? I'm a newbie and even i wouldn't do that. How can we know what TLCS settings ex1r was using, compared to pmw200.

That test reminded me of this: Canon 5D Mk II vs Sony PMW-EX1 - YouTube

Maybe he forgot to turn off the ND filter on ex1r, who knows :)

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

That test has not been done professionally.

Here's some controlled testing I did this afternoon comparing my PMW-200 and PMW-EX1 at various levels of gain. Because there is no motion in the frame, the videos might look like freeze frames, but they are actual rolling 24P video. Since the PMW-200 offers the same 35Mbps 420 codecs as the PMW-EX1 (FAT mode), plus several higher-quality 50Mpbs 422 (UDF) codecs, I chose to test both modes to see if it made any difference.

Shutter was off.
Lens was wide open at f/1.9
Picture Profile was off (although I would never actually shoot without a custom picture profile)

Vortex Media: VIDEO & PHOTO Tools and Training

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Thank your for this REAL comparison Mr. Jensen :)

It's still interesting how Sony shared the first link tho'. It's false advertising (in a very stupid way). How come nobody questions the exposure difference between the two image yet says pmw 200 was much better in the comments -.-

Someone should contact that google+ account. Sony Professional Solutions doesn't look very 'professional' this way.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Would have wished for more split screens, but a fair test nonetheless.

What I noticed the most difference was in the highlights. It seemed like the EX1 was more sensitive than the 200, but the 200 looked like it handled highlights better. (though that may be a side effect of being less sensitive)

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

When I did my tests I found the PMW-200 to be marginally more sensitive at 0db than the EX1R, under half a stop. But more importantly it had a little less noise. Camera 0db gain levels are at the discretion of the camera manufacturer. These two cameras are proof of that as they use the same sensor, so the true sensor sensitivity should be the exactly the same. The PMW-200 uses better image processing than the EX1R and this processing includes noise reduction. Clearly Sony have decided that because of the improved noise reduction they can add a little more gain to the nominal 0db point of the PMW-200 and thus the PMW-200 appears to be more sensitive. This improved noise reduction becomes more noticeable at higher gain levels, the PMW-200 giving a slightly cleaner image. So while the PMW-200 may not be significantly more sensitive than the EX1 you can use more gain for a similar on screen noise level. When I had my EX1R I really didn't like going above +6db gain, with the PMW-200 I am happy up to +9db gain. Factor in the slightly higher PMW-200 sensitivity I feel that the 200 has almost a 1 stop advantage over the EX1R.

It's also important to note the way the noise reduction behaves. One thing that always let the EX1 down a little bit was the way the noise reduction could give greens and some skin tones in the mid range a "muddy" look. You could mitigate this at the expense of more noise by using a high minus value to the crispening settings in a picture profile but it is always there. The PMW-200 is far better in this respect and the more I see images from it the more I'm impressed by it. Despite using the same lens and sensors as the EX cameras the PMW-200 images are much nicer in many respects.

The recording codec should make no difference to the sensitivity, it's conceivable that the slightly higher bit rate of the 50Mb/s mode could show more noise, especially at high gain levels as the extra data allows the codec to record more picture information and a codec can't really tell the difference between desirable picture information and noise. However any differences in this would most likely be lost once the clip is encoded for the web.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

I am teaching my nine years old how to focus and zoom manually. Here he is in front of FAO Schwarz in NYC.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Always good to start early! How touching! :D

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

It is great to see him using the viewfinder instead of the flip-out LCD! That is starting off on the right foot. Good for him.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Jack:

As recommended I got BPU-90 battery.

Boy this thing is huge!

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

Oh, it'll certainly help for your press conferences and staff meetings. Uninterrupted power is critical, and a big battery is certainly something you will need.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

BPU-90 battery actually balance well with PMW200. Specially with external microphone attached. It lasted me almost 5 hours with both Viewfinder and LCD on.

Certainly a recommended accessory.

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

New PWM-200 will not let me record with the cards and adaptors that I have from my EX-1 in UDF mode which is the new best quality 50/mbs/sec mode. Do you have a solution or one in the works?

Re: So I bought PMW200. Now what?
 

With any of the UDF modes you can only use SxS cards or XQD cards. SD and Memory Sticks are not compatible.